A Call for Gillyflowers
by Irayana
Summary: My mind screamed at me to stop as my hands reached the softness of his hair. My heart chose to defy the plea. I slid my hands farther up to knot in his pale, blond locks as I found it somewhere deep in myself to kiss him back." Beka


Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with Terrier or Bloodhound. They belong to Tamora Pierce.

I have to admit I don't know when Beka's birthday is and I'm pretty sure it's mentioned at some point in one of the stories but I have neither one on me at the moment so I can't check. Sorry. But if anyone can tell me what the correct date is I might find it in my schedule to find the time to fix and change this. I'm a stickler for accuracy otherwise I wouldn't have even mentioned this.

This is just a little tidbit about Beka and Rosto. (Could turn into more but I am trying to concentrate on my other stories)

It's timed around six-seven months after Bloodhound took place.

*******

_Thursday, May 2, 248 H.E._

_Two of the afternoon chronicling the events from Wednesday the 1st patrol to the morning of May 2nd._

I am so very closed mouth usually, knowing I can always spout information but can never take it back. So why was it today that I opened my mouth and things I did not want to say spilled forth?

Mayhap I should just start from the beginning and hopefully when I'm done my thoughts will be clearer. (Goddess. How many times have I said or wrote that afore?)

The watch last night was aught but pleasant. Then again, lately, it usually isn't, not with the constant rain that turns streets into mud traps and puts everyone in a foul mood. Just last night along with the usual foists and filchers to deal with, there were three tavern brawls to break up and a Rat that found the need to try and escape me by running through all the back alleys and making me traipse over a good portion of the Lower City.

I hate it when the sarden loobies think they can get away by doing that. They always end up being hobbled by my raw hides anyway but I also always end up covered in some type of muck. Even after two and half years as a Provost's Guard, one as a puppy, the rest as a Dog, the criminal population always think they have found a new way to get around the 'Terrier' or 'Bloodhound'. I'm starting to suspect it's becoming a game to see what Rat can try my patience more. Too bad for them the winner's prize is a trip to the cages.

The brawls were all started by some tosspot or another over the normal things. Cheating at a card game, flirting with a married mot with a husband of the jealous-type, or just looking at someone the wrong way. Poor Achoo was kicked square in the tripe while trying to bite a cove that had been about to knife Tunstall. The Senior Guard had been other wise occupied while giving the nap tap to a particularly hard headed drunkard.

I guess on some parts I can never be too vexed with the gods. They did get me partnered with Tunstall who, though, is a jabbernob at the best of times and one for sweet rolls, is an army unto himself.

Sometimes, on the rare occasion when I'm breaking up a fight or warning a pickpocket off, I catch myself wishing Goodwin was still doing patrols. I know it's all folly since she has found Desk Sergeant definitely easier than going about the Nightmarket and banging in heads. I personally think she's so content with it because her man, Tomlan Goodwin, has expressed his pleasure greatly since she has stopped coming home to him with newly healed broken bones and bruises from the ill wishing Rats of Corus.

Last night I had been too busy for silly wishes for Goodwin. Though no Shadow Snake episodes or colemongering incidents have happened in the last half year, I can't complain about the loss of things to be doing or scents to be chasing after; the Lower City still supplies plenty of work for me and my fellow Dogs.

By the time we mustered out I was aching from beaten bones and filthy with muck I had picked up from the back allies and their puddles I went splashing through. And it happened to be a night where the skies chose not to continue to open up after a full day of pouring to wash the filth from my body. I had gone to the bathhouse where I scrubbed half the Lower City off my skin immediately and came home to fall asleep even before I opened my journal.

Pounce is telling me I'm delaying in writing the events of this morning. Well with Master Fusspot Constellation scolding in my ear I might as well get to it.

It was around seven of the morning when a so-called friend banged on my door ordering me to get dress so she could drag me to the Dancing Dove for some reason that she would not tell. I was everything but willing and made a point to tell just that to Aniki Forfrysning, the so-called friend who had all but threatened me bodily harm if I did not come with her. I've had misgivings about something she, Ersken, Kora, and Rosto the Piper were planning and sneaking around for but afore then I never gave it much thought. That is until I saw Aniki's grin that was sharp as her blades which caused my suspicions to reawaken.

Turned out it was all because my circle of friends, rogues and Dogs alike, had gathered at the inn across the street from my lodgings to celebrate an event I had conveniently forgotten about. I was at the front door of the tavern when I caught on. It was my eighteenth birthday that day.

"Aniki…" I started irritation thick in my weary voice.

She did not give me a chance to protest afore the swordswoman hauled me inside.

Once I got over the annoyance that my family and friends had done this I enjoyed myself. It almost felt like a normal breakfast with friends 'cept for the fact that there was more food then usual and people were there who were not typically present.

My brothers and sisters had come, Goodwin, Tunstall, Lady Sabine, different Dogs and rogues I had befriended over the years, and Granny Fern. That surprised me for my gran has been getting on in years for awhile and I don't think she's left her house since the welcome back party after I came back from Port Caynn.

I was annoyed all over again though when some felt the need to get me things. Secretly, I was pleased to receive the extra reeds and inks from my family for my writing and the new dress sewn by Lorine. (I just need to find somewhere to wear it) I'll admit that I was more excited about the arm guards with new knives and the lock picking kit since my old kit was lost and my other knives had been getting to the point when I needed to continuously sharpen them. To my utter shame I could not, for the life of me, I still cannot recall where I had used my lock picks last. But I won't go into details of what Goodwin did when she heard I was so careless. My ear twinges just thinking about it.

Even though I protested the gifts the people all forced them on me. My excuses of refusing were getting weaker and weaker.

"I'm perfectly fine with just having all of you here," I told them stubbornly. "It's even better that there's food as well. What more could I ask for?"

"It's your eighteenth birthday, Beka." I glared at Ersken who only smiled wider. "Enjoy it while it lasts."

"You should listen to him," Tunstall said looming over me with his ridiculous grin. "For I'm starting to think when your next birthday comes around I'll just knock you over the head a nineteen times for the hope that some sense will come along with your age. It would be a lot cheaper."

"If being hit on the head guaranteed sense then shouldn't we all have more brains by now?" This came from Lady Sabine and making all of us laugh including me.

Eventually I found myself sitting on the floor with my back propped against a wall while across the street, in my lodgings, I practically heard my bed calling to me. Achoo was snoring in my lap for she was just as tired as I was.

I watched Kora tease Ersken, across the room from me, as she playfully stroked her fingers over the revealed skin of Ersken's neck. I felt the cracknobbed pang of longing and loneliness that I always felt when I looked at them or Tunstall and Lady Sabine. I pushed the pang away, refusing to acknowledge it happened.

I was tickling Achoo's nose with a finger telling her softly that she needed to get up so I could move legs that had fallen asleep when a quiet voice above my head made me jump.

"They're a good pair aren't they?"

I looked up into Rosto the Piper's dancing black eyes. "Who?

He nodded over at Kora and Ersken who looked like the inn could have caught fire and they wouldn't have noticed. "The two love birds over in the corner thinking no one sees them."

I smiled half heartedly and shrugged. "I'm just amazed that Kora has been able to keep Ersken's head out of the clouds for as long as she has. Not that I can complain since it's helped him stay alive on patrols."

The Rogue smiled a heart wrenching grin and gracefully sat down beside me. Achoo decided that she could move then. She scooted off my lap and nuzzled Rosto's hands until they were scratching her ears the way she likes it. Soon the begging mumper was on her back so he could scratch her belly, though carefully since he had no doubt been told about the scut who had kicked her.

It was awful hard to push back the senseless thoughts that whispered about wanting it to be me his strong fingers caressed instead of the hound. Even now I blush at the idea and become warm all over. I kept having to remind myself of where the two of us stand with the law. Dale Rowan was the last serious relationship I had and none after since our parting in Port Caynn. Of course there were coves who hinted at a fancying for me but I had never ahd the time to be interested. I was always either too busy chasing Rats or too tired after doing so. But that never stopped the man who sat beside me from stealing the occasional very warm kiss.

My mind had fallen back on one such cracked memory of a rare sunny day a few weeks ago and had caused me to miss the beginning of Rosto's next sentence. All I heard was "-and I congratulate him on keeping Kora from frying his head off by now for some reason or another."

I chuckled quietly and glanced over at the those in question to see that Kora and Ersken were far to lost in themselves to notice that their friends were having a laugh at their expense.

"Well I'm glad that he finally officially asked her to marry him. I mean how long has it been since they moved into their house together?" I asked quietly petting Pounce, who had come over to where we sat. I recalled that faithful day a few weeks ago.

It had been a normal breakfast with the two fooling around when Ersken had caught her up and whispered something in her ear. It was nothing special, no big preparations had occurred, it was all absolutely ordinary, but Kora had practically deafened everyone with her shrieks of 'yes'.

"I'm going to be very interested on how they work out as a married couple. Since both have very different duties and occupations in the Lower City," I had to tilt my head to hear his next words that were whispered, "I might have to take some notes."

"Knowing them, they'll figure it out," I said quietly meeting his dark eyes evenly with my own blue ones.

Achoo suddenly flipped back over so she could stand. With a small whine and a pleading look in her eyes I knew she needed to take care of the necessaries. "If you'd excuse me Rosto, I need to let Achoo out." Without listening for his response I pushed myself up and walked out the door, only briefly stopping to tell Aniki to not think I was leaving for good. Pounce followed me like the shadow his fur coat made him resemble.

I went out the back door of the Dove through the kitchen with its mouth watering scents. The front room was loud as it was at night even though the hour had only struck eight. Business was blooming like a flower in all this rain.

Standing in the back alley next to the kitchen door, I shivered. It was cold outside the warmth of the Dancing Dove what with spring being here and all. As Achoo made her way to the gutter the wind blew a mixture of smells to my nose. Rain was coming again but over that there was the hint of Lower City scummer and smoke from the countless chimneys. I was just able to see my landlady beating dust from a blanket across the street at our lodging while down the road people walked with quick purpose, wanting to get home before the rain started.

Pounce sniffed daintily at a leaf that blew to land near his paws before swinging his head up to stare at me with his strange colored eyes.

_You're avoiding Rosto. _

"Of course not," I snapped at him. "Achoo had to-"

_That hound will normally only listen to you, but she has to listen to me if I tell her to pretend to need to go outside._

"What do mean?" I asked glancing over at the scent hound who had found amusement in the same leaf that had blown by Pounce. She looked up at me and slightly wagged her tail as if to say sorry.

_Rosto wanted to talk to you. He's wanted to talk to you for a while now. But every time you two see each other, you're either on duty getting the happy bag or he's surrounded by all or part his court. _

"Well what would he want to talk to me about?" Even as I asked this I knew just what would've been discussed. I glared down at the small creature."Why are you interfering with that subject of my life? I thought you weren't allowed to do that."

_I did not do anything that wasn't going to happen anyway. I'm just helping._

"Helping?" I asked weakly not sure what to say. I was glad we weren't in easy view from the road. I would have threatened anyone with my baton if they gave me a funny look for talking to a cat. "It's not helping. It's hindering. Any feelings that I _might_ have for Rosto the Piper will only hurt both of us and all of the Lower City."

_Do you really think that?_

"Yes I do. It's either I get too caught up in a relationship that I skimp on my duty to the people of the Lower City, hurting them and myself or I get to a point where I depend on him so much that he could take advantage of me and I'd be known not as the Bloodhound or Terrier but as the Rogue's doxie."

"Beka?"

My flow of heated words to that interfering constellation was cut off as Rosto stepped out of the Dove's door. His blonde hair was bleached an even fairer shade by the watery sunlight that leaked through the clouds. His black eyes searched my face which I belatedly realized was turning red.

"Beka?" His voice was quiet and low, like he was talking to a skittish horse or sommat.

I could not look him in the eyes. I turned to glance around wondering where Pounce had suddenly disappeared to. Achoo was still happily exploring the different lumps and mounds of things in the alley. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to make my black heart crack and bleed buttermilk," he said trying to sound light hearted. He failed. I heard him shift behind me foot to foot. Then he sucked in a breath and started talking. "I'd never want you to think that you'd be a doxie to me or, if we did ever have a relationship, that I would take advantage of it. I'd treat you as an equal whether as a fighter or as a friend. Even if that that equal happens to be a beautiful and stubborn Dog."

I scuffled my foot against the ground and looked up refusing to be so intimidated. "I can't lie. I like you Rosto more than I should, but you're the Rogue and I _am_ a Dog. I can only allow myself to be your friend and sometimes even that causes me to hesitate in my Dog's work. I know you've killed men who've tried to hurt me and I turn a blind eye every time. No I'm not just talking about the Pells brothers," I snapped when he opened his mouth.

I was purely guessing at what he was going to say but Rosto shut his mouth and stayed silent. I hate it when he decides to act patient. Curse him. He knows just how to press my buttons and pull my strings to open the floodgates for information.

And I was unable to stem the flow as I started to pace along the alley. "You had a reason to order the Pells killed because they attacked on your home's ground or whatever silly excuse you gave to me when I asked. But I'm also talking about the man who broke my collarbone a few months back after cornering me while off duty. Or the whole gang whose leader I hobbled a few weeks ago who were seeking revenge. They all had funny ways of ending up stabbed or acquiring cut throats."

Rosto had been silent and I hoped that he might take the hint and leave. But I knew him and he was not one of those people to give up easily or without a fight.

"We've never tried to be anything so how can you so easily dismiss it as failure?" I didn't answer. He went on in my silence. "Kora and Ersken are managing fine in their quest for a happy life. Tunstall and Lady Sabine are still going strong. Why would we be so different?"

"I realize now that you haven't gotten my point," I said heatedly clenching and unclenching my hands. "You are the _Rogue. _The Rogue who controls all forms of trickery and theft and murder in the biggest city of Tortall. I continuously shy away from the thought that one of these days you're going to commit a crime and something is going to slip and the trail will lead back to you, Kora, or Aniki. Even Reed Katie or Bold Brian, I druther not have to hobble them either but that's my duty and I will do it no matter how much it hurts." I took a breath and whispered, "A cove who makes his way in the world by violence will live all his life by it. We, as in you and I, could never be anything-"

That's where the pox rotted, murrain brained cove kissed me. He had just kept looking at me with his shiver-causing, black eyes as I paced in front of him until he suddenly reached out a hand and grabbed my arm. He's cursed well lucky that I had controlled myself and not kicked his gems out through his head.

But I can't say that I exactly wanted to do as such. Every kiss he's stolen or every brief touch I've felt from his hands has shown just how soft Rosto can be. But now, I suspect since he finally knew how I truly felt, it made me feel different. Like a release of something. I feel the same way when I catch a big Rat or when I'm on the trail of a murderer. Excited and eager also a little anxious but confident at the same time.

I think that was my undoing, the strange new sensation coursing through my blood like the heady energy that did the same during a chase. As I was held against Rosto's chest I cautiously let my hands move to trail up his body reveling the tight muscles that gave him the grace of a cat. My mind screamed at me to stop as my hands reached the softness of his hair but my heart chose to defy its plea. I slid my hands farther up to knot in his pale, blond locks as I found it somewhere deep in myself to kiss him back.

I think that startled him. I definitely recall hearing his breath hitch slightly as my lips moved along with and against his.

Too soon, _far_ too soon after living so long in denial and ignoring his rose petal soft lips, Rosto moved back just enough to let us look at each other clearly.

"I should kill you for that," I whispered but my heart wasn't in it. It was currently preoccupied with pounding out a rhythm of victory in my chest.

"Beka, I'd give up the Rogue's way of life for you." He paused and appeared thoughtful for a second as he studied me. "I'd have to see that those in my care are taken care of first but if you were even just going to give me the smallest of chances I would stop it all."

Even now I can't quite believe him. He'd give it all up? Just for a chance with me? The stealing, the fighting...? I laughed just now thinking, who are we kidding? He wouldn't quit cold mutton. The streets and his roguish ways are part of him just like the Lower City is part of me. But compromise has always been a word in my vocabulary...

"And if it didn't work out?" I heard myself ask after a moment. I tried to ignore Rosto's smug face that was no doubt caused by the fact that I hadn't pulled away or hit him yet. "Those of your court wouldn't just let you back in."

His eyes shone even though there was no sunlight to be had as he smiled. "That's when I would leave Corus to make a new name for myself. Again. But mayhap I'd become the Rogue of a different city and cause madness there. But..." he added with a mischievous glint in his black gaze. "I don't think that will be a problem. Because," he brought up a hand to gently trace my cheek leaving a line of shivers in its wake, "Beka, ever since I saw you when you were a Puppy just starting to get the feel of your paws and already on the trail of the Shadow Snack, I said to myself if ever I was to settle down I'd want someone like you to do that with. Stubborn and strong, capable and caring all in one person."

I know I blushed then because he brought his mouth to mine again. For a while after that we were very quiet thinking about what had occurred.

"I need to get back before Aniki comes looking for me with her sword drawn," I whispered making a chuckle ripple through him.

"She'll probably think I snuck off with you somewhere. I have to say she caught me trying to leave unnoticed from the room. It's hard to do that when you're me."

I smiled before he gave me one more quick kiss on the lips and then let go of me. He strode off down the alley and not to the kitchen dorr which confused me. "Rosto, where are you going?"

He turned and was walking backwards as he answered. "Missing me already?"

"No, I'm just curious as to where you are going."

"Well since you asked, I do believe that this calls for gillyflowers. There is a lovely hedgewitch I do believe I owe a visit to if I want them."

And he was gone leaving me to work out just what had happened. When Achoo finally made her way back to me, I stood watching the clouds race each other across the sky petting her head. I hate it when Rosto makes sense, but I definitely love his kisses.

*******Author's Note*******

I might add more to this but maybe I won't. It all depends.

Thanks for sticking to the end. 8D


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